Mayne family

I realize this post is a little late in coming but we had a fantastic New Year! We spent the the first few hours of the evening over at our neighbor’s house with a bunch of friends and their kids. After a wonderful dinner, and getting the kids worn out, we returned home and had a baby sitter over to watch the boys while we went out with some friends. We met up with our friends for dessert, and then went and saw the movie Valkyrie. It was surprisingly good. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I love history, and I thought this movie was really good. It was great to be out without the kids for New Years for the first time I think since we had Jackson. So it has been a while.

Then on the 2nd, the Utah Utes destroyed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. That was a fantastic game and was a good start to a new year. Paul and I have been planning these past few months on getting season tickets to the U games, I hope that we still can! So far 2009 has been good. Let’s hope it will continue to be.

Paul set up a computer in his office for the boys to play on last week, and Eli LOVES it! We are always finding him on the computer now.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Grandma and Grandpa Lewis decided to spend Christmas with us, and we were so glad. We did so many wonderful things with them, and with Uncle Troy when we joined us. We made cookies, made a Gingerbread house, built Lego towers, and played games. Thanks Mom, Dad and Troy for a wonderful Christmas! Here are pictures from some of our fun activities.

This past Monday night found our family at temple square to see the lights. My parents were joining us this year for Christmas and on their drive here we decided to meet up and see the lights. Paul and I haven’t seen them in years and neither had my parents. We dressed up the boys in all of their snow clothes so that they wouldn’t be too cold. The boys sure had fun exploring temple square, and Eli was obsessed for some reason with touching doors. He stood in awe of the temple, and said, “mommy, I touch the door?” After I explained to him we couldn’t go touch the temple doors, he then wanted to touch the doors he could. He finally was able to touch the door at the Church Office Building.  I think the kid could feel the spirit of temple square and just wanted to be as close to heaven as he could. What a sweet spirit. Jackson had fun with his Grandma and Grandpa. He loved showing them everything.  After about an hour, we were frozen and headed home. What a fabulous family outing.

This past week, I took Jackson on our monthly date. We started this a few months ago when I realized that with Jackson going to preschool I get some alone time with Eli but I don’t with Jack. I think alone time is important with kids, so me and Jack go on a date. This month he really wanted to go bowling. So bowling we went. Jackson had a lot of fun. He bowled his first strike ever. Granted he did have bumpers, but who cares. He was so excited. After bowling, we went to dinner at McDonald’s of course. It was a fun night for us! Paul and Eli really enjoy their alone time also when Jack and I are gone.

So winter has finally hit. For the past week we have had one snow storm after another. It has been insane. Paul luckily has been able to work at home. The boys are finally old enough to enjoy playing out in the snow. There has been sledding, snowman making, and some snowball fights. I really don’t like being cold but I have managed to play out in the snow with the boys. I think I might need to finally invest in some snow boots. I don’t have a pair, I have been wearing Paul’s. But with kids, and winter stir craziness, I probably should get some. It sure has been fun to match the boys’ enthusiasm for the snow. I find myself wanting to attempt to make the snow forts and slides that my dad would make for us for them. However, my favorite part of going out in the cold is the hot chocolate that I make for everyone when we are done playing outside.

Jack had his Christmas program this week. Paul was lucky enough to be able to work from home so that he could see it. I have to say, it was so dang cute. Jackson has been really proud that he can sing all of the words to Jingle Bells but I didn’t realize just how many songs he learned for this program. The kids all did fantastic. I really love his teacher. She makes things so great for those kids. At the end of the program Santa made a surprise appearance. Jackson was so excited to sit on his lap. He had to patiently wait his turn, but when he got there he told Santa he wanted the Optimus Prime Transformer and a new computer. Eli on the other hand was completely freaked. He refused to be anywhere near Santa. He ran into the other room and would only come out after Santa was gone. What a great program!

(This is Paul) Jana’s website is now found directly on janamayne.com (previously blog.janamayne.com). I have transferred all the previous posts from Tumblr into Wordpress, the old archive links are broken but you can see all the old stuff in the archive links on the right.

If you subscribed the the RSS feed, that is also broken, although I’m working to create a redirect. Please update your Feed reader of choice to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/janamayne

Currently we’re just using the standard template while I use my magic and give Jana a proper design. If she’s lucky.

A few weeks ago our fireplace and mantel was finally finished. It only took a month!! However I am very pleased with how it turned out. Jackson and I have spent many hours just sitting in front of the fire and getting toasty warm. I love have a place to hang our stockings for Christmas, but perhaps best of all is having the TV up high and that the kids can’t reach it anymore!! I can’t believe how much it changed the look of my living room!

Before!

After!

Yesterday we had a bunk bed delivered to our house. We figured that eventually the boys will have to share a room so why not get them in the habit before it is a necessity. I love the bunk bed that we picked. It is perfect for the boys. Eli slept in his new bed yesterday and I don’t think he ever slept so good in his life. He went right to sleep and didn’t wake up once! That hasn’t happened in quite a while. Jackson meanwhile still needs some time to adjust but we expected that. He lately has been sleeping in our room on the floor. He starts out in his bed but doesn’t last long. We are hoping have a roommate will help him sleep in his room, and I think it will!

This past week has been pretty busy and pretty fun. Last Saturday Paul and I took the boys to Boondocks to get out and do something different. As we were walking in, someone handed us their golf passes saying they didn’t use them and that we could. That was super nice. So we took the kids miniature golfing for free. They loved it! That was definitely a first for them. Jackson especially had fun golfing. We also played some of the games and collected quite a good amount of tickets.

This past week our basement has progressed. We have it all sheetrocked, mudded, and taped, and also all the finish work is done. We also finally got our fireplace/mantel finished!! It only took a month! There is some touch up work left to be done on Mon, but happy day it is pretty much done!

Wednesday I was able to go to the Carrie Underwood concert with some friends. It was awesome. I love her! My friend and I had tickets on the floor only 11 rows back and it was fabulous. I have never had seats up that close before and it was great. She puts on a great show!

Thursday night, I along with millions of others, went and saw Twilight at midnight. My best friend and I had about a group of 20 that went and saw the movie with us. We made a whole evening out of it. We went to Chili’s and ate food, and then joined the insane crowd of people at the movie theater. I loved the movie! It definitely isn’t as good as the book but I think they did the best that they could!

What a fabulous week!!!!